Steam Account blocked during data restriction

I have a simple question and I want a simple answer. When I am on data restriction, my Steam account is blocked from use. This just started last month. If Exede is going to block my Steam access then I am going to quit Exede service and switch to a cellular MIFI service. I only play card games on steam, it's not like it used much bandwidth. Don't even dare tell me to write in to Exedelistens@viasat.com That's B.S. I've written twice and they send me answers to someone else's questions and not mine.

We recently had an update to our system that affected some plans. Over the years, content providers changed their delivery methods which made it difficult to distinguish streaming when reporting usage. For some customers. prior to this upgrade, our software incorrectly distinguished streaming media as web browsing. This update now better distinguishes it and if you've gone over your data you may have trouble visiting such sites as youtube, Facebook video, Steam etc.

My steam account is blocked while I am in data restriction. Your vague answer tells me that this isn't going to change. I will start looking for a new data provider. I'll let all my town/neighbors know what I think about the service.

Jon,If you read the other threads here there are many who are experiencing a similar problem. For some inexplicable reason, the responses from some of the Exede employees acknowledge the problem and go on to say that they are working on getting it fixed . In other responses such as the one from Lindsay above, they conveniently leave that part out. We have seen posts by the SAME Exede employee on different threads where they fail to disclose the problem then on another thread they admit that there is a problem!

This post by Exede Brad was probably the most forthcoming with information...

"Merely the messenger BRKnox. Believe me, I fully understand how and why people are upset about this. Communication probably would have been a area of opportunity about this changeover and we are taking your posts as feedback on this. The responses and feedback we're getting on this is being seen by the highest levels in the company. I assure you that this is not falling on deaf ears by any means.

Obviously this probably created a MUCH larger impact than I think our teams that implemented the correction expected as evidenced by this forum and our growing email backlog (for those that emailed it's taking longer than our 24 hour response time, but we are chipping away at them). I've been more than happy to hook those up that contacted me with a little extra data, admittedly it's a band-aid of a resolution but it's literally the only thing I can offer outside of suggesting a plan that isn't impacted until the issue of sites not loading is resolved. I haven't seen an update on that, but it's being investigated and hopefully we'll see resolution sooner than later.

In the meantime for those on Evolution plans, I would urge those not over their limit to be mindful of the content on the pages they visit to try to avoid having the same frustration as those on here that has surpassed the data limit. Things like immediately hitting pause on a news site to avoid videos playing (nearly every news site has a video about the article you're reading about...super annoying trend). Adding something like Adblock can assist with ads from playing. So things like that can help as well. "

...and on another thread he posted..."We are aware of the issue of pages not displaying and are currently scrambling to resolve the issue. "

I am not yet on data restriction this billing cycle but when I was during the prior motnth there were lots of sites I could not access. Othere posts have suggested that they have made progress but I cannot personally vouch for that.

Thanks for the reply Bruce, I appreciate it. I've now read through other similar threads and I see the pattern. The change that exede has made regarding what it considers "streaming data" amounts to all users having greatly increased data usage and then holding customer's data plans hostage/unusable unless they pay more money. Grandmothers trying to view their grandkids pictures on facebook are quickly going to go over their data limit and will be forced to pay more or not see the pictures. Honestly, I live in the rural community of grandparents and because of these data changes exede has made I morally can't tell my neighbors this service is what they want. I will suggest they use cellular mifi or tethering instead.